SOURCE: Catani, Remo. “The Mixed Blessings of Tradition: An Examination of Carducci's ‘Idillio maremmano.’” In Italian Lyric Tradition: Essays in Honour of F. J. Jones pp. 73-90. Cardiff, U.K.: University of Wales Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Catani uses “Il maremmano” to showcase Carducci using the classical form to avoid rather than temper emotion.

When, after long gestation, Giosue Carducci eventually came to compose ‘Idillio maremmano’ in September 1872, he was Professor of Italian Literature at Bologna and an established poet, patriot and public figure.¹ Much to the annoyance of his wife Elvira Menicucci, he had for some time been pouring his heart out for an erudite, coquettish, sophisticated lady from Milan, Carolina Cristofori Piva, who was to figure as the Lidia of the Odi barbare. In all their years together he had barely given Elvira an affectionate mention, and now, in ‘Idillio maremmano’, he suddenly wrote what...